Shaping the Future of Green Hydrogen Production: Overcoming Conventional Challenges with Molecular Catalysts, Immobilization, and Scalable Electrolyzers

IF 11.3 1区化学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL

ACS Catalysis Pub Date : 2025-01-02 DOI:10.1021/acscatal.4c05986

Suhana Karim, Niharika Tanwar, Srewashi Das, Rounak Ranjit, Anwesha Banerjee, Gulafshan, Aryan Gupta, Akshai Kumar, Arnab Dutta

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Abstract

The energy crisis is a daunting global problem that calls for innovative and supportable solutions to ensure future energy security and environmental stability. To counter this energy uncertainty, accelerating renewable-driven hydrogen production stands as a vital option to foster carbon-neutral energy infrastructure. This review conveys an overview of worldwide hydrogen generation techniques (steam methane reformation, thermochemical, biological, and electrolytic), highlighting the key features, indicating the pros and cons, and unraveling the potential environmental consequences. Herein, the conventional gray and cutting-edge green hydrogen production technologies are compared, with a focus on sustainable water electrolysis utilizing renewable energy sources. The existing difficulties with conventional electrolysis, including the usage of expensive catalysts in both cathode and anode, are discussed along with the possible gateway with cost-effective and sustainable electrocatalysts. This review focuses on the potential of three types of 3d transition metal-based molecular catalysts─cobaloximes, iron porphyrins, and nickel bis-phosphines─for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER), stressing their strategic synthetic designs, mechanistic routes, and catalytic parameters. Despite their high activity and selectivity, these molecular systems confront stability and scalability issues, limiting their practical applicability. To address this, the immobilization of these catalysts into solid matrices is studied, simplifying their integration into membrane electrode assembly (MEA) water electrolyzers for industrial-scale renewable-driven hydrogen production. To bridge the gap between lab-scale investigations and commercial implementation, several design components of the MEA stack are examined, such as flow patterns and scaling methodologies. A comprehensive approach to catalyst development and deployment is ensured by highlighting the significance of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) in assessing environmental sustainability and economic viability. The review closes with a call for multidisciplinary research and innovation to improve electrochemical water-splitting technology and accelerate the transition to an enduring hydrogen economy.

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来源期刊

ACS Catalysis CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL-

CiteScore

20.80

自引率

6.20%

发文量

1253

审稿时长

1.5 months

期刊介绍： ACS Catalysis is an esteemed journal that publishes original research in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis, molecular catalysis, and biocatalysis. It offers broad coverage across diverse areas such as life sciences, organometallics and synthesis, photochemistry and electrochemistry, drug discovery and synthesis, materials science, environmental protection, polymer discovery and synthesis, and energy and fuels. The scope of the journal is to showcase innovative work in various aspects of catalysis. This includes new reactions and novel synthetic approaches utilizing known catalysts, the discovery or modification of new catalysts, elucidation of catalytic mechanisms through cutting-edge investigations, practical enhancements of existing processes, as well as conceptual advances in the field. Contributions to ACS Catalysis can encompass both experimental and theoretical research focused on catalytic molecules, macromolecules, and materials that exhibit catalytic turnover.